A classic for January – we review Nicholas Nickleby
Nickleby – the blurb
Following the success of Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby was hailed as a comic triumph and firmly established Dickens as a ‘literary gentleman’. It has a full supporting cast of delectable characters that range from the iniquitous Wackford Squeers and his family, to the delightful Mrs Nickleby, taking in the eccentric Crummles and his traveling players, the Mantalinis, the Kenwigs and many more.
Combining these with typically Dickensian elements of burlesque and farce, the novel is eminently suited to dramatic adaptation. So great was the impact as it left Dickens’ pen that many pirated versions appeared in print before the original was even finished.
Often neglected by critics, Nicholas Nickleby has never ceased to delight readers and is widely regarded as one of the greatest comic masterpieces of nineteenth-century literature.
Old and Long
Nicholas Nickleby is one of the oldest books on my To Be Read pile. And I don’t necessarily mean by publishing date. It’s size, 750 pages of small print, put me off whenever my eye happened to fall upon it. Being January however, a time when I usually read a classic and being stuck in yet another lockdown I decided to give it a whirl.
Being typical Dickens it was originally serialised and I tried to read a section each time to reflect Dickens intention. There wasn’t too much time to linger using this approach as I felt myself always deferring to how many pages I still had to read. This was a shame as it would have been enjoyable to mull over some of the chapters – Dotheboys Hall and the treatment of the misfit boys, the Kenwigs anniversary party with its potential for humor. Does anyone else struggle to linger over a long book?
Poverty, villains and virtue
Having now read a few Dickens books Nicholas Nickleby immediately felt familiar. There were the usual delightedly named characters, a poverty stricken family and equal amounts of villainy and virtue. You knew the ending before you began, you just hadn’t met the female Nicholas would end up with, nor the man who would give him his fortune. Whilst it didn’t feel as slow as Bleak House I did skim read parts (although this is difficult with Dickens as you are never sure which of the many characters are going to reappear and be important later on).
For me it didn’t have the stand out quality of A Tale of Two Cities (and was probably three times as long). I feel like I’ve read my fill of Dickens now. For a long while at least. I’ve read and loved Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend and a Tale of Two Cities. Others I’ve ploughed through with a sense of obligation. I feel that I know Dickens, or at least his works and don’t feel that I will miss out from not having read the full set. Little Dorrit, Dombey and Son and Martin Chuzzlewit are doomed to remain upon my not read list. I’ve reached a kind of ‘over and out’ moment. What about you – what are your favorite Dickens? Have you read them all?
